10,315 research outputs found
An improved perturbation approach to the 2D Edwards polymer -- corrections to scaling
We present the results of a new perturbation calculation in polymer
statistics which starts from a ground state that already correctly predicts the
long chain length behaviour of the mean square end--to--end distance , namely the solution to the 2~dimensional~(2D) Edwards model.
The thus calculated is shown to be convergent in ,
the number of steps in the chain, in contrast to previous methods which start
from the free random walk solution. This allows us to calculate a new value for
the leading correction--to--scaling exponent~. Writing , where in 2D,
our result shows that . This value is also supported by an
analysis of 2D self--avoiding walks on the {\em continuum}.Comment: 17 Pages of Revtex. No figures. Submitted to J. Phys.
The Accuracy of Perturbative Master Equations
We consider open quantum systems with dynamics described by master equations
that have perturbative expansions in the system-environment interaction. We
show that, contrary to intuition, full-time solutions of order-2n accuracy
require an order-(2n+2) master equation. We give two examples of such
inaccuracies in the solutions to an order-2n master equation: order-2n
inaccuracies in the steady state of the system and order-2n positivity
violations, and we show how these arise in a specific example for which exact
solutions are available. This result has a wide-ranging impact on the validity
of coupling (or friction) sensitive results derived from second-order
convolutionless, Nakajima-Zwanzig, Redfield, and Born-Markov master equations.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figures; v2 updated references; v3 updated references,
extension to full-time and nonlocal regime
A controlled experiment for the empirical evaluation of safety analysis techniques for safety-critical software
Context: Today's safety critical systems are increasingly reliant on
software. Software becomes responsible for most of the critical functions of
systems. Many different safety analysis techniques have been developed to
identify hazards of systems. FTA and FMEA are most commonly used by safety
analysts. Recently, STPA has been proposed with the goal to better cope with
complex systems including software. Objective: This research aimed at comparing
quantitatively these three safety analysis techniques with regard to their
effectiveness, applicability, understandability, ease of use and efficiency in
identifying software safety requirements at the system level. Method: We
conducted a controlled experiment with 21 master and bachelor students applying
these three techniques to three safety-critical systems: train door control,
anti-lock braking and traffic collision and avoidance. Results: The results
showed that there is no statistically significant difference between these
techniques in terms of applicability, understandability and ease of use, but a
significant difference in terms of effectiveness and efficiency is obtained.
Conclusion: We conclude that STPA seems to be an effective method to identify
software safety requirements at the system level. In particular, STPA addresses
more different software safety requirements than the traditional techniques FTA
and FMEA, but STPA needs more time to carry out by safety analysts with little
or no prior experience.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure in Proceedings of the 19th International
Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE '15).
ACM, 201
The usefulness of thermal infrared and related imagery in the evaluation of agricultural resources. An exploratory study, volume I Final report
Multispectral imagery for aerial inventory and analysis of cultivated crop resource
Consciousness science : real progress and lingering misconceptions.
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Non-Markovian Dynamics and Entanglement of Two-level Atoms in a Common Field
We derive the stochastic equations and consider the non-Markovian dynamics of
a system of multiple two-level atoms in a common quantum field. We make only
the dipole approximation for the atoms and assume weak atom-field interactions.
From these assumptions we use a combination of non-secular open- and
closed-system perturbation theory, and we abstain from any additional
approximation schemes. These more accurate solutions are necessary to explore
several regimes: in particular, near-resonance dynamics and low-temperature
behavior. In detuned atomic systems, small variations in the system energy
levels engender timescales which, in general, cannot be safely ignored, as
would be the case in the rotating-wave approximation (RWA). More problematic
are the second-order solutions, which, as has been recently pointed out, cannot
be accurately calculated using any second-order perturbative master equation,
whether RWA, Born-Markov, Redfield, etc.. This latter problem, which applies to
all perturbative open-system master equations, has a profound effect upon
calculation of entanglement at low temperatures. We find that even at zero
temperature all initial states will undergo finite-time disentanglement
(sometimes termed "sudden death"), in contrast to previous work. We also use
our solution, without invoking RWA, to characterize the necessary conditions
for Dickie subradiance at finite temperature. We find that the subradiant
states fall into two categories at finite temperature: one that is temperature
independent and one that acquires temperature dependence. With the RWA there is
no temperature dependence in any case.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, v2 updated references, v3 clarified results and
corrected renormalization, v4 further clarified results and new Fig. 8-1
Dental Research Waste in Design, Analysis, and Reporting: A Scoping Review.
Research waste is highly prevalent across biomedical investigations. We aimed to assess the evidence on the extent of research waste in dental research. We performed a scoping review of empirical evaluations of dental studies assessing the prevalence and impact of limitations in design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of research. PubMed was searched using specific terms to retrieve studies dealing with design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of studies in dentistry, with no year or language restrictions. Of the 1,807 publications identified from the search and from manual searches, 71 were included in this review. The topic and article selection was based on the expert opinion of the authors. The existing evidence suggests that, although there are improvements over time, substantial deficiencies in all areas (design, conduct, analysis, reporting) were prevalent in dental research publications. Waste in research is a multifaceted problem without a simple solution. However, an appreciation of optimal research design and execution is a prerequisite and should be underpinned by policies that include appropriate training in research methods and properly aligned incentives
Quenched QCD with domain wall fermions
We report on simulations of quenched QCD using domain wall fermions, where we
focus on basic questions about the formalism and its ability to produce
expected low energy hadronic physics for light quarks. The work reported here
is on quenched lattices at and 5.85, using values
for the length of the fifth dimension between 10 and 48. We report results for
parameter choices which lead to the desired number of flavors, a study of
undamped modes in the extra dimension and hadron masses.Comment: Contribution to Lattice '98. Presented by R. Mawhinney. 3 pages, 3
figure
Dynamical QCD thermodynamics with domain wall fermions
We present results from numerical simulations of full, two flavor QCD
thermodynamics at N_t=4 with domain wall fermions. For the first time a
numerical simulation of the full QCD phase transition displays a low
temperature phase with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking but intact flavor
symmetry and a high temperature phase with the full SU(2) x SU(2) chiral flavor
symmetry.Comment: LATTICE98(hightemp
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